Making the World a Safer Place

Iran Resumes Building Missile Plants in Lebanon, Israeli Army Warns in Rare Article in Arab Media

January 30, 2018

Haaretz:

Israeli defense officials believe that Iran has resumed building a precision weapons factory in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, wrote in an article published Sunday. It was particularly unusual that the article was published on several Lebanese-owned websites and Arabic publications – including Voice of Beirut, Sputnik and Israeli radio’s public Arabic broadcaster.

Half a year ago, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister, and the chief-of-staff, charged that Iran had begun to build plants to manufacture arms in Lebanon. Israel threatened on a number of occasions to bomb the plants, which it suspected were under construction.

According to the Israeli assessment, Iran wants to step up its efforts to improve the accuracy of Hezbollah’s missiles and rockets and, as foreign media have reported, the Israeli Air Force has attacked some of the convoys smuggling precision weapons from Syria to Lebanon. This is something that Israel has indirectly admitted on several occasions. As a result, the Iranians have been seeking to get around this obstacle by transferring production facilities to Lebanon itself.